September 2017
Anne-Lise François – Fire, Water, Moon: Supplemental Seasons in a Time without Season
If the Anthropocene names the geological epoch defined by the radically destabilizing effects of human activity on geophysical processes, this talk asks about the continued relevance of other, relatively unchanged seasonal cycles and patterns of fluctuating intensities and regulated dearth and abundance (both cultural and geophysical).
Find out more »John Tresch – Barnum, Bache, and Poe: American Science and the Antebellum Public
This talk will explore how the sharp increase of printed matter and an elitist movement to unify knowledge through centralized institutions in the 1840s influenced Barnum, Bach, and Poe, therefore changing the relations of science and public in this early phase of industrialization.
Find out more »Priscilla Wald – Cells, Genes, and Stories: HeLa and the Patenting of Life
754 Schermerhorn Extension 1200 Amsterdam Ave Speaker: Priscilla Wald, R. Florence Brinkley Professor of English, Duke University The by now well-known story of Henrietta Lacks imparts human drama to the development of the first immortal human cell line. But there is another drama that, despite scant critical attention, raises significant questions that continue to trouble genomic research and the biotech industry. What is driving the legal, political, and ethical debates concerning the HeLa cell line and other creatures of the…
Find out more »Beth Linker – The Great War and Modern Veteran Care
This talk will trace the practice and ethic of the rehabilitative model of veteran care, with an eye toward showing how it later became commodified as part of America’s ongoing commitment to pursuing a militaristic foreign policy.
Find out more »C. Richard Johnson, Jr. – Weave Maps and Rollmates: Computational Analysis of European Old Master Canvases and Early Chinese Silk Paintings
One way of connecting paintings is to establish that they are painted on two pieces of fabric originally from the same roll. Using Thread Count Automation, and the visualization of the results as weave maps, provides evidence of rollmate pairings from the 15th - 19th centuries and may be applied to silk paintings from the 12th – 13th centuries as well.
Find out more »October 2017
Céline Frigau Manning – Silencing the Body: Hypnosis, Music, and Pain in the 19th C.
Though hypnosis has been the subject of a vast body of clinical investigation and historical scholarship, the history of its relationship to music remains unwritten. This talk will explore various narratives of this interaction in an attempt to understand how experiments involving music and hypnosis influenced both doctors’ and patients’ moral understanding of bodies in pain.
Find out more »Matteo Farinella – The Senses: Conversation and Book Launch
Caveat will host the launch of The Senses, an immersive ride through the body's five senses combining the most up to date scientific research with the visual inventiveness of the graphic novel format. Step into the world of the senses... meet the four mechanoreceptors of touch, examine our taste buds up close, discover the link between smells and memories, and learn how optical illusions trick the cells in our eyes into seeing things that aren’t there. Doors open at 7:30pm. Free and…
Find out more »From the Faculty Lounge: Why Do We Do That? Decision-Making and Natural Selection
Returning this fall, From the Faculty Lounge continues to bring together some of Barnard’s most notable professors, authors, and experts for enlightening discussions. Joshua New, assistant professor of psychology, and Homa Zarghamee, assistant professor of economics, discuss how human behavior can reflect both explicit decision-making processes and implicit biases shaped by natural selection.
Find out more »Paul Krugman – Does Equality have a Future in America?
This event is the 10th Annual Isidore I. Benrubi Lecture in the History and Ethics of Public Health, and features a Keynote lecture by Paul Krugman, Economist and Columnist for The New York Times.
Find out more »Stephanie Barral – Banking on Nature: The Market as a New Feature of Environmental Policies
Conservation banks, like carbon offsets, are a new form of economic exchange promoted and facilitated by governments as a means to achieve environmental sustainability for endangered species. The expansion of these banks reflects a new relationship between environmental sciences, markets, financial instruments and public regulations, but questions remain about their benefits and efficacy.
Find out more »